


it's coming down the family tree

by magisterequitum



Category: Psy-Changeling - Nalini Singh
Genre: Future Fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-19
Updated: 2014-12-19
Packaged: 2018-03-02 03:25:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2797808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magisterequitum/pseuds/magisterequitum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Naya's favorite person, after her parents and brother of course, is her grandmother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	it's coming down the family tree

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spyglass](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spyglass/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide, Spyglass!!!
> 
> I was so pleased to get this assignment. There was so much I wanted to do and really I could have written you about ten different things. BUT, I thought this was the best one. I really wanted to do a story focusing on the three generations of the Duncan women, all the happiness and the sadness that is there and will be there. And tried to work in a few hints at other things. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this and your holiday is wonderful. <3

Naya's favorite person, after her parents and brother of course, is her grandmother.

She's no stranger to important people in her life. 

She is the daughter of the alpha of the DarkRiver pack and the most important empath the world will ever see in this living century. For all that her parents have never acted as if they are something more than others, she does not grow up blind to what they are. It is hard not to see once she's old enough to tell. 

Old enough to know that her parents' friends who played with her as a cub are really sentinels of the Pack. Or that the events they go to where they wear pretty things are because of her parents' duties to the world. Or that the sometimes dinners that happen between the people her mother works with on the InterRacial Council aren't just friends, but fellow members. 

She figures it out as she gets older. It becomes a perplexing and confusing dilemma though. What the world sees as larger than life characters and heroes are family and family-friends to her. 

Specifically, she knows what the world thinks of Nikita Duncan. She knows what her parents think of her, what sometimes she overhears from pack members. She knows what she can read. 

But Naya knows what all others don't and can't understand:

_that Nikita Duncan loves her only granddaughter_

 

 

 

The first time Naya meets her grandmother she is three and it is her birthday. 

 

 

 

(This is not true. It is just the first time Naya can properly remember meeting her grandmother. 

The first time is actually over a year earlier. Naya's too young, but it's a surprise encounter where Sascha had both needed to discuss housing contracts and also have Naya with her; Lucas preoccupied elsewhere, a meeting with Teijan in another part of the city. 

Sascha had chose to bring Naya with her. A decision weighed down with anxiety but one she'd hoped might be successful.

Then Nikita had not touched her. In fact, if her gaze had not strayed from Sascha's to the baby cradled in her arms, Sascha would have thought her mother unseeing of her at all. Nikita made no comment to her existence. But she watched, and next week Sascha had received a notification that the trust fund had seen a modification in amount.

Nikita, ever working in her own ways, had acted without open cause or concern in the only way she knew how to. How very Psy, but years later Sascha would know it for the love it had been made in.

That meeting had been over a year ago, and time makes difference.) 

 

 

 

It is her birthday, she is turning three, and she meets her grandmother for the first time. 

Naya will remember because she wears a yellow dress she'd adamantly picked out with her father just for her birthday. She's with her father, who has been tasked with taking her away from where the Pack is decorating back home. 

"Just a minute, princess." He says, ruffling her hair while setting her down. She's three, but sometimes she still likes to be picked up. She can see so much more in her father's arms. Her cat likes it there. 

Naya busies herself with looking out the windows of Papa's office. The glass is tinted so no one can see in, but she can see out, and she likes watching the people below. They live in the forest, surrounded by trees and green and nature. But she likes the city too with its people and loud noises don't bother her. 

She can hear her father behind her talking with Ria; she likes Ria because Ria often has a piece of candy she keeps at her desk for Naya when she visits here. Her attention doesn't waver from outside until she hears an additional voice. 

An unfamiliar one and she turns around at it. She knows too many people of Pack, and this is not someone she knows. 

The woman is no where near as tall as her father, not even close to her Mama either. She's wearing something similar to what Papa has growled at being "too stuffy", a buttoned jacket in black and pants. It reminds her of what Mama wears sometimes when she goes to her meetings. 

But what draws her attention, even closer than the low voice her father is talking in, is the shiny present in the woman's hands. 

Moving closer, Naya catches parts of what they are saying. 

"I did not think you would be here. I meant to leave it with your assistant, Miss Wembley." 

Naya can pick up on the tension her father is radiating, her cat rubbing up against her skin in recognition. By now she stands near the doorway, small fingers fisted in her dress's skirt. 

Her father looks down at her for a long moment and then back up, mouth pressing together before saying, "You could give it to her yourself." 

The woman goes still and stiff. 

So still that Naya wonders if there's something wrong, but then her father speaks again, softer and friendlier than before. "I think it would be alright if you did, Nikita." 

_Nikita._ A name. A name that Naya has heard before. _Oh_ , she thinks, her panther going very quiet inside her. 

"Of course, if that is acceptable." The woman, _Nikita_ , answers in such a funny way. 

Papa holds out his hand to her, smiling at her. She goes, staring up at the woman she has a name of now. Excitement has already taken root in her before her father says, "Naya, your grandmother would like to give you something." 

_Grandmother_

Naya later will remember the present she'd taken, the strange way her grandmother had wished her to have a very pleasant third birthday, and the small squeeze of her right hand when she'd given her the gift. 

It's a book, she finds out after the party when she's home and in their living room in the open aerie. Her curls have come undone and her dress is covered in dirt from playing, but it's the pages of the book that are so interesting to her. 

"She got her a book?" she hears her Mama say from in the kitchen. Low voices again as if they think she can't hear them. 

"A book. It's all animals." From the corner of her eye, Naya can see her parents hug, Papa rubbing Mama's back. "I thought it would be okay. Is it okay, Kitten?" 

Naya pauses in tracing the tail of the shiny black panther. Her own panther growls in approval of the drawing. She wonders if maybe she's not supposed to have it, if she's not supposed to know and if her father's done something wrong. 

"No, I'm glad. It's okay." Mama sounds tired and sad, but she'd said it was okay. 

The book she later finds out when she gets older is an expensive illustration of all different animals. It's one of the best presents, and she'll keep it even when the spine cracks. 

 

 

 

Naya is six, missing her front tooth, when she asks her father why it is him that always takes her to visit her grandmother. 

After the birthday present, her parents agree that if Naya wants to see Nikita and if Nikita wants to see her, that it would be okay. At first, it's a few times when Naya goes into work with her father. She thinks her grandmother funny, with the way she's silent and doesn't talk. But it's okay because Naya can talk a lot, and it's she who does most of it. Once Nikita offers to watch her when her father has a meeting so she won't be bored; her grandmother's office has less things in it but no less interesting and all her questions are patiently answered. 

"I don't think she'd ever let anything happen to her," Mama says one night. "If she wants to spend time with her that's good." 

From then on it's a regular every other week occurrence. 

But it's always Papa that takes her, never her mother. 

"Does Mama not like Grandma?" Naya asks, her feet drumming against the car's seat where she can't reach the floor-bed. 

"Why do you say that?" her father asks back instead of answering. 

Naya huffs, turning from where she had been looking down at her lap to look him in the face. Which is hard given he's driving, but she tries anyway. "Mama never takes me. And Mama doesn't talk about her. Grandma doesn't either."

Reaching with one hand, he takes her hand. "You know things didn't always used to be okay, right? There used to be a lot of fighting." 

Blinking, Naya bites her lip as she tries to remember what she's heard both at school and from Packmates. She nods, hair falling into her face. "Yes," she starts to recite, "The three races used to not all get along. But things are better now." 

He smiles at her, looking back to the road after. They're close to home. Home where Mama's been all day with her new baby brother. "That's right. But your Mama and your grandmother didn't used to get along in the easiest of ways." 

Her parents have never discussed this. They've very much on purpose never discussed and Naya knows this. Whether it's because they don't want her to know or because she's too young. But she wants and she doesn't understand. And all she can think is that her mother never takes her to see Nikita and her grandmother very much does not mention her mother unless Naya brings her up first. She doesn't want to hurt anyone. 

"But things are better now," she says stubbornly. 

Papa's smile is sadder this time. Somehow she just knows. He grabs her hand again, squeezing. "It's not that easy, Princess." 

 

 

 

It takes Naya weeks to work up the courage to ask her mother outright. 

She does it when she's telling her goodnight, after she's been tucked into bed. She likes it when her mama runs her fingers through her hair before turning off the lights. With the birth of Alexander, her parents have been too busy for their nighttime rituals.

"Mama," Naya asks, looking up into her mom's open and relaxed face. 

"Yes, sweetheart?" 

"Do you not want me to see Grandma?" 

Her mother's hand still on her forehead, and the white stars Naya finds so beautiful and fascinating disappear for a second. "Why do you ask that?" she asks when they come back. 

"I don't want to make you upset."

Shifting closer, warm hands slide down to hold her face. "Oh, Naya-"

"Because I will! I'll stop. I don't want to make you sad." Naya's cut off this time when her mama kisses her forehead. 

"I'm sorry, baby," Mama apologizes, and her smile's crooked even in the lowlight of only her nightlight. "I love you very much. And your Grandma loves you very much. And I would never, ever, want you to not spend time with her." 

"Really?" Naya can't help but ask, unsure and hesitant. It's still not an answer and she still doesn't understand. 

The ritual brushing of her hair by her mama's slender fingers starts up again. Another kiss to her forehead. "I promise. Things were different when I was your age."

It's not the normal bedtime story her parents tell her, but Naya listens very carefully as her mama tells her only smallest of what no one else will. 

"She asked, and she's old enough to understand some," Mama will later say to Papa.

She understands then, just what her parents have gone through. 

 

 

 

Naya's past ten years when she realizes she wants to be a healer. 

Her bestfriend is Roman, and his mama is the Pack's healer and Naya's frequent babysitter. Both Psy and Changeling, her psychic abilities aren't like normal Psy. It's when she's over with Roman so much that they all realize just what her Psy nature has given her. The empath gene hasn't been passed along fully, but it's twisted in a way to combine with her healing changeling nature so that she can see illnesses and abilities in a rainbow of auras. 

Roman's mother says what she can see and will be able to do genius. Her parents say it makes sense given her father's family. Her grandmother looks as delighted as she's ever been when Naya tells her over dinner. 

"Is that so?" she asks. 

Naya nods, "Yes! And I can help people who are sick." 

"That's very nice." Grandma smiles, which means that the corners of her mouth twitch and pull slightly up. She does that more and more lately. The smiling, and also the less perfected grammar. Though sometimes she still corrects Naya when she talks too much with slang. 

What her grandmother does then is to introduce her to Aunt Faith's father. 

She's met Anthony Kyriakus before at a large party. She's met him also because her grandmother frequently is around the other man. A fact Grandma remains secretive about much to the teasing of Naya's mother in private; Mama actually uses her as gossip while Naya rolls her eyes too often over it.

Adults remain strange even as she gets older. She swears she'll never be like that.

This is a more formal introduction though. It's meant to pass her along to Leon Kyriakus who is an actual M-Psy. Naya has Roman's mom, but that can only give her changeling practices. An actual M-Psy can give her the other half. 

Which is all to say rather ridiculous since her mother works with the mate and husband of Leon Kyriakus's daughter; her mother also helps teach their adopted empath daughter. A fact her Mama points out. 

"I could have asked myself, Mother. You know Sahara or Kaleb wouldn't have said no."

Naya watches in fascination as Mama says this with a fondness on her face and one hand tugging on the end of her braided hair. 

Her Grandma sniffs, tossing her head up. "It's the principle of the matter." 

Shaking her head, her mother says, "Meaning you wanted to do it. Besides, don't you think Naya's too young still?" 

"It's never too young, Sascha." Grandma's eyebrow raises in that way that Naya hopes one day she can do. The one where you don't argue back and that's the end of it all.

"You spoil her," is Mama's reply. 

Only Naya can see that her grandmother's mouth twitches in the faintest of smiles. 

She gets the introduction, even if she's still young, and uses her baby brother as practice. 

 

 

 

As she gets older people around her stop hiding their words. When she was a kid, Packmates and people who knew her would be careful over just what they said. Whether it was about her parents, or the war, or her grandmother, or anything. Adults watch what they say around kids. They don't watch what they say when you're not little anymore. 

More specifically, they don't watch what they say in regards to who Nikita Duncan used to be. And who they think she still is. 

"What did you used to do?" Naya asks one night when she's over. Her Grandma still lives in the large apartment over her office, but where her Mama says it once used to be devoid of anything not stereotypical Psy now it has some color; there's a drawing from when Naya had been eight that still hangs on the cooling unit in the kitchen. 

Across the kitchen table, a small one that had been bought just so they could do these meals together years ago, her Grandma sets her water glass down. Now older, Naya can see the resemblance between them. In tiny ways, but there. She has parts of all of her family in her. 

After a moment, instead of answering, she asks, "Why are you asking?"

Naya feels a child again, as if she's back in her bed with her mother from years ago asking if she shouldn't spend time with the woman across from her. But she's not a kid. And she hasn't been in a while. In the Pack she's on the upper end of being a juvenile. Her panther rubs against her skin inside of her, a low sound threatening to spill from her mouth. 

Instead, she swallows, "Someone said you were an evil heinous bitch."

To her credit, Grandma only raises that eyebrow and blinks before saying, "Language." 

The tears that had started to pool in her eyes stop. Naya scoffs and rolls her eyes. "Grandma, please." 

" _Language_." 

Naya's nearly sixteen. Asking about the fact that her grandmother used to apparently be terrible is allowed, but she can't repeat cuss words other people said. She makes a note to never cuss unless she's in front of Roman. 

Grandma doesn't lie to her though. Once she's properly told her that formalities were to be maintained even if one was repeating someone else, she begins with, "I was not always the best of people, _Nadiya_."

Sometimes, as she's reminded now while her grandmother tells her about the past, their past, Naya really wishes that she could comfort her in the changeling way. But all she can do is say she loves her still even now and hug her, their dinner forgotten. 

She doesn't try and keep the tears in when Grandma says she loves her back. 

 

 

 

She's still crying when she gets home. 

Straight into her mother's arms as if she's a cub again. The familiar scent that she inhales to try and calm down. There's no one else in the aerie. Her father and Alexander must be out somewhere else. 

Mama bumps against the kitchen counter from the force of her hug. A plate falls with a loud smack where she'd been putting away the dishes. "Naya," she says, worry clouding her voice. Hands rise and try to pull her back, jerking on her elbows. "Are you okay? What's wrong?" 

Sniffling, Naya can only choke out. "I'm sorry. I'm _so sorry._ " 

Drawing on her empathic abilities, she draws away the frantic emotions till Naya can breathe alright again. She feels calmer, even if it's fake. 

"What is wrong? Tell me." Cardinal eyes so different from Naya's own green. 

"Grandma told me everything."

Mama's forehead scrunches with a confused frown. "I don't understand." 

"I'm so sorry you never got to have what I do. That she's different now." 

Blinking rapidly, a little huff of noise exhales from her mother's mouth. "Oh, _Nadiya_ ," her full name again, "Sometimes I wonder how we got so lucky with you. My beautiful girl." 

"Mom," she chokes out. 

Water wrinkled fingers cup her face until she's staring her mother full on. "No, you listen to me. I love you very much. Your grandmother loves you very much. And let me tell you that your grandmother has always loved me too. In her own ways, but I've felt it. I know." 

"I'm still sorry," she says because she can't change the way she feels even with this fierce affirmation. 

"I know." A pass of fingers through her hair, tugging at the wind tangled strands from where Naya had run back home instead of driving all the way. "I am too. But it's enough now." 

 

 

 

Naya's favorite person, after her parents and brother naturally, is her grandmother. On some days, when her parents are being exceedingly aggravating, or Alexander has bothered her, she likes to joke and say she loves her more than them all combined. 

To which Alexander says is legit since "Grandma can definitely make people's heads explode." 

It's her parents and brother that move her into the smallish New York City apartment when she chooses to do her medical studying there. 

But it's Grandma that comes by to inspect a few days later to make sure the place is good enough. Naya had taken care to clean the place of every inch of dust so as not to warrant a lesson on manners. Or worse something drastic. Like her Grandma up and buying her an apartment three times the size of this one. 

"You'll still come and visit, right?" Naya asks after she's given the quick tour. It seems the apartment passes; later on video, Mama will tell her she'd gotten an earful about the place.

That eyebrow raises. "Why would I not?" The question comes out as if she's ridiculous for even asking. 

Naya's smile is wide. She's not an empath like Mama, and maybe she doesn't really need to be. She knows and that's enough.


End file.
